Taking ICE to Court

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that immigration agents disregarded their own policies in making warrantless arrests and violated the constitutional rights of five North Carolina residents. 

Several advocacy groups, including ACLU of North Carolina, Democracy Forward, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in the Western District of North Carolina, which includes Charlotte. Defendants include U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the leaders of Immigration and Custom Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

The class-action lawsuit represents the first legal salvo from November’s immigration enforcement crackdown that Homeland Security officials called “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” That operation brought hundreds of Border Patrol agents to the Charlotte area, netting more than 425 arrests. It ignited widespread fear among immigrants and sparked protests from the broader community. 

As the Trump administration has cracked down on illegal immigration, federal agents’ use of warrantless arrests has increasingly emerged as an issue. According to DHS policy, agents are only allowed to arrest someone without a warrant if they have probable cause that the person is in the U.S. illegally and is an escape risk. But the lawsuit alleges that agents have routinely violated that policy, which is based on federal law. 

The lawsuit claims that agents racially profile any Latino-appearing person or any person speaking with a Latin American accent. 

“Federal immigration agents have consistently ignored the law and trampled civil rights in North Carolina,” Corina Scott, staff attorney at the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement. “This lawsuit seeks to stop this abuse of power and demand accountability going forward so that our communities do not continue to suffer violent and unlawful arrests.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could not immediately be reached for comment. But administration officials have denied in public statements that agents are violating any law or agency policy in enforcing immigration law. 

Four Plaintiffs Are U.S. Citizens

Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, his administration has ordered immigration crackdowns in big cities across the country, particularly ones it believes insufficiently enforce immigration laws. That includes Chicago; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Portland, Oregon; and most recently Minneapolis, Minnesota, where ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens who were protesting—Renee Good and Alex Pretti. 

In all of those operations, federal immigration agents have been far more aggressive than in previous years, with numerous reports of agents smashing car windows, pulling people out of their cars, and slamming them on the ground. Civil rights advocates have complained that federal agents have repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of undocumented immigrants and sometimes of native-born citizens. 

In North Carolina, the operation wasn’t confined to Charlotte. It spread to Raleigh and Durham, as well as smaller cities, including Salisbury. 

Businesses with large numbers of Latino customers and employees briefly closed, and many school districts, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Durham, saw record-breaking absences. Durham schools had a 68% increase in absences during the week of November 17, according to the lawsuit. More than 30,000 students—about 20% of student enrollment—were absent from Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools that same week. 

The lawsuit has five plaintiffs, four of whom are U.S. citizens: Willy Wender Aceituno, 46, a naturalized citizen from Honduras who has lived in Charlotte more than 25 years; Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, a citizen born in North Carolina who lives in Charlotte; Edwin Godinez, a 29-year-old U.S.-born citizen who lives in Spencer; and Godinez’s brother, Yair Alexander Napoles, 22, who was born in North Carolina and lives in Salisbury. A fifth plaintiff is Ruben Arguera Lopez, 39, who has a valid work visa and a U-Visa, a humanitarian visa for victims of certain crimes or for people who help law-enforcement officers with investigating serious crimes. 

The complaint alleges that all five men were detained by either ICE or Border Patrol agents, despite telling them numerous times that they were legal residents. 

The lawsuit describes their arrests in detail. Aceituno’s story is particularly noteworthy because he said he was stopped twice, even though he had proof of citizenship. 

According to the lawsuit, Aceituno was waiting for a food order from a local Honduran restaurant in a shopping center parking lot on Saturday, November 15, the day Operation Charlotte’s Web began. Border Patrol agents approached him, asking for his last name and whether he was a U.S. citizen. The agents asked for documents, and Aceituno said he had a Real ID, which would prove that he was a U.S. citizen. 

The agents asked for another piece of documentation. For 15 minutes, Aceituno was questioned by four immigration agents, the lawsuit said. 

The agents scanned Aceituno’s driver’s license and let him go into the restaurant. Aceituno left the restaurant with his food and got into his red F150 truck. As he attempted to drive off, the lawsuit says two Border Patrol vehicles blocked the front and back of his truck. These were a different group of Border Patrol agents.

The agents told him to get out of the truck. Aceituno, the lawsuit said, told the agents that he had already identified himself as a U.S. citizen to another group of Border Patrol agents. 

Aceituno started recording on his phone and told the agents in Spanish that he would not open the window. One of the agents got out and knocked on the door window with a baton, ordering Aceituno to get out of the truck. 

The agent took the baton and smashed the window, with the glass shattering all over Aceituno, the lawsuit says. An agent knocked Aceituno’s phone to the ground. He told the agents that his Real ID was in his back pocket but avoided reaching for it because he didn’t want the agents to think he was going for a weapon. 

Two of the agents dragged him out of the vehicle and forced him to the ground, where they handcuffed him, the lawsuit says. 

“I got my papers ready, I’m a citizen, my wallet is here, check in my wallet,” Aceituno said repeatedly, according to the lawsuit. 

The agents put Aceituno into a vehicle with other Latinos and they drove around for about 10 minutes, before one of the agents finally checked Aceituno’s wallet, found his Real ID and confirmed he was a U.S. citizen. The agents pulled over and told Aceituno to get out. When Aceituno asked if he could get a ride back to his truck, the agents threatened to arrest him if he didn’t walk away.

Bleeding and in pain, Aceituno walked for 20 to 25 minutes before he got back to his truck. He filed a police report and went to the hospital to get his neck and one of his arms checked out. He had to get his truck re-keyed because the agents didn’t give Aceituno his keys back, the lawsuit says. 

Trump Administration Defends Tactics 

Federal judges have castigated federal immigration officials for violating court orders, and judges in Washington, D.C., Denver, and Portland have ruled against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying that immigration agents have violated their own policies regarding warrantless arrests.

But federal officials have defended the practices in court, and The New York Times recently obtained an internal ICE memo that set out broader powers to arrest people without warrants. 

The memo, signed by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, focuses on the federal law that allows agents to make warrantless arrests if they believe someone is likely to escape before an arrest warrant can be obtained. The law now defines escape as including when a person is “unlikely to remain on scene.” 

Critics fear the new interpretation will give agents wide discretion in making warrantless arrests. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that the federal immigration presence hasn’t gone away in North Carolina. The ACLU recently obtained documents indicating plans to build more detention facilities, including possibly in Greensboro. 

“We cannot continue to allow our own government to break the law, make up rules as it goes, and abuse and assault communities across the state,” said Jake Sussman, chief counsel of justice system reform at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.